I've never heard of the Maono PD400X and was extremely surprised to hear how amazing it sounds on both male and female vocals. It was my favorite sounding microphone of all the ones you tested. I love the style of it as well and the versatility of being able to use it with an XLR and USB-C. Very awesome, thank you for this!
I agree, lots of good surprises here. The moral of the story is that even if you picked the worst mic of the bunch, you'd be very well off to create some high quality content!
Hey JT, Wonderfully done video. Researching mics for a friend and found this incredibly useful/helpful. Especially like the dual female/male voice and making it a blind hearing test! duh! what a great idea. keep up the good work
@@NewLayer I loved the male/female comparison. Unfortunately, I had different favorites. Fascinating comparison and making me wonder about my brain. LOL
Glad it helped! My wife is an audiobook narrator and we switched to the PD400X because she can use XLR and USB at the same time to do livestream narrations AND record at the same time with the same quality audio on both. Oh, and it sounds great! Been loving it so far.
@@NewLayer After 1 month of usage. My wife absolutely loves it! & I actually like it as a more versatile mic over the one I picked for my voice.. (The FiFine K688). For beer reviews and just me sit down talking videos, I use her PD400X.. When podcasting/livesteaming, I prefer my Fifine K688 just due to the noise floor on it, and the warmth of the mic. Randomly came across this video again, and saw my comment lol. Watched again... and yes.. absolute great review. Cheers brO
Yes! What a relief, haha. I went with the Procaster too for my "final" setup in my home office studio. It sounds amazing on my voice, especially paired with the processing available in the RODECaster Pro 2.
@@NewLayer That's good to hear. I also have the Focusrite Scarlett, so i'm glad to see I'm on the right track. I don't have the RODECaster Pro (yet) but I've seen a lot of good feedback about it. P.S. I was interested to see that you haven't stuck foam pads everywhere and went for very clever wood panelling instead. Subscribed!
@@jackspring7709 I had/still have a Scarlett, and it runs the the Procaster excellently as well. When I used it, I had EQ/compression/noise gate presets I'd apply after the fact. I love the RODECaster because I can do all that before ever recording audio, so it saves me time there. If you're interested, I cover the wood paneling in my recent studio tour video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eYccZyARZuA.html They do a good job at sound treatment, but I also have 4" thick panels from GIK acoustics on 2 other walls that are even better for that.
@@NewLayer Excellent. That's interesting that the RODEcaster can do all that without having to process it afterwards. BTW - Thanks a lot for the link: I'm going to check that vid out.
Gotta love the benefits to USB mics! No interface, more portable, mobile compatible, definitely big selling points. And like you said, EQ and basic post processing can turn pretty much any mic into what you need it to be nowadays.
@@Spartan_Jackal Thats what I'm replacing too but I would like to know if you would be so kind to share exactly what settings you used in your slight EQ tweaks for the Deity. I'm about to jump on the Maono and order it but the Deity was my second choice. Also what software did you have to use to set and tweak the EQ for the Deity??? I have a deep voice and I do not want to lose that rich and deeper sound that the Deity or the Maono put out during the tests here.
@@ToddDolce deep voices actually work well with the Deity out of the box. I have a mid voice, so I had to add a little extra on the low end. I use Reaper plug-ins. Started using them with SLOBS, then OBS Studio, now I use them with Elgato Wave Link and I've never had an issue. I raised around 105Hz by 5, 5.5 1100Hz raised by about 4 and tweaked 4.8kHz up by like 0.5 Go look up "Senpai Gaming How to make USB mic sound like studio mic" They compare an Elgato Wave 3 to a Blue Kiwi. I used that vid as a starting point and now my Deity sounds pretty close to an SM7B
I immediately could tell D and F sounded horrible (very muddy), but im so surprised my top Pic was B, which is not Shure sm7b! It sounded the cleanest out of all of them. My ranking was B, A, E, C, D, F, and the podmic only ranked higher cause it was still clean audio despite being very flat.
It's crazy how people have such different preferences! Personally I think the PD400X is one of the best, and the Deity (E) is an easy last place. I also don't really like the Shute SM7B, at least on my own voice, hehe.
I'm surprised how much I disliked the rode podmic. It made your wife's beautiful narration voice sound shrill. E&F followed closely by A were my favorites. This was the clearest back to back test I've heard so far. Thanks.
Haha, the PodMic definitely lacks low end and can sound shrill on higher pitched voices, but it does EQ very well. It's always nice to find a mic that matches your as perfectly as possible though.
The podmic and boya sounded nearly identical. I prefer the cleaner sound from the podmic/boya personally. I have the rode podmic and it really needs a lot of gain and a treated space. The same features that make it clearer/cleaner sounding also makes it pick up echo and background noise a lot more. But also keep in mind for youtube getting a mic at -14 LUFS is pretty difficult without a cloud lifter and a very well treated room. Currently the room I record in is very open with lots of hard surfaces. Im going to be making a blanketed recording studio soon. The biggest thing that makes a mic sound better is EQ and room treatment.
A well treated room can make even the cheapest mics sound great! The PodMic is definitely very capable, so I'm sure it'll sound great for you after some treatment.
I love the Procaster, use it to this day! And my favorite part of testing is finding the hidden gems, like the BOYA, and I think the Maono PD400X is one of the best overall dynamic mics I've ever heard as well
I got the Podmic in 2021 for content creation. It was pretty good for what it was, but I was always intrigued by the way cheaper Zoom ZDM-1. Got the ZDM-1 last year just because my curiosity wouldn't leave me alone. It's safe to say I could use it even for low-budget voiceovers. It's that much better on my voice, and requires less gain.
That's awesome! An important thing no one really mentions is that best sound quality isn't really the main deciding factor a lot of the time. Features and ease of use can easily trump that, especially when nearly every modern mic can produce professional results!
First of all, I'm newbie. I plan to buy shure sm7DB and Focusrite solo 4th gen. I still need this cloud? This will definitely be a problem. I think this shure has an internal gain control
Correct, the SM7dB does NOT need a gain booster, because it has one built in. You will need phantom power though, which the Focusrite will provide, so you'll be all good to go!
I personally do not have to. My wife uses it mostly now, and her voice is a good 15dB quieter than mine. She can get by without it, but since we have it, she uses it. With the Cloudlifter, she has the gain turned up to about 1-2 o'clock on the 2i2. Hope that helps!
The Procaster sounds slightly clearer to me. The others are all very hard to tell apart, except _perhaps_, but a very tiny margin, the VO-7U, which is slightly less sharp.
I love the Procaster too! The only mic that beat it out for a permanent place on my boom arm is the Lewitt RAY ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IuZG9o0bjtQ.html
that was good review and comparison too. Very nice. Very representative. Like. Maono pd400x btw selling in my country ~90$. Sometimes even cheaper. Kinda gold steal to me. :3
I thought C (the pod mic) sounded ‘thin’ (less rich) compared with the others. Being on a budget myself, I was thinking I’d get the Rode pod mic to go with my new Zoom H4n Pro recorder, before hearing this blind test, but now I may opt for D (the $100 Boya) instead. I really liked the Māori too. A & B we’re over my budget but both sounded very good to me. 😊
I agree, the PodMic is not the fullest sounding raw, but it does take EQ very well, so if you plan to set up an EQ regardless, definitely not a dealbreaker. The Boya and Maono have a full, well rounded sound for sure. The Maono is still one of the best deals in dynamic mics and I recommend it often.
Yes! Depending on your phone, you may need an adapter that lets you use another cable to provide enough power to the mic. I don't know exactly which phones but.... My iPhone 13 Pro Max doesn't need it, but my wife's 13 Pro does. amzn.to/3u7y8Sl
@@NewLayer But you're right. I spent over 3 hours looking up different budget mics comparing to the Maono PD400x and ended up coming to it but initially I did something similar for the RODE NT USB+ Sucks it wasnt for me in the end but in the end I was like "You know what? If I want a Condenser Mic, which is designed to pick up more noise and be used for VO work, I'll get me a Lewitt 440 Condenser or something with a dedicated XLR connection one day."
@@G-R-I-I-I-M The Lewitt 440 is one of my top condenser mics at the pricepoint of all time! If you haven't seen my video on the Lewitt RAY, you should! It's what I use now for everything :)
Hello sir. Thanks for this video. I need one information just. Did you use cloud lifter with boya mic? And what was the gain level of your audio interface. I have this boya mic and i am going to buy a new inteface. That’s why i ask this question. Please reply. Have a nice day.
@@NewLayer thank you for replying.. Basically i want to buy focusrite 3rd gen. 4th gen have more gane but more expensive.. Thats why i ask that question.. Is 3rd gen of focusrite enough for me or must have to buy 4th gen?
It sounds slightly different, but no worse, in my opinion. And it has multiple "modes" with subtle differences, plus, settings to tweak it to sound however you want really. So, still highly recommended.
In this video I'm using the RODE NT-USB+ since the RODE ProCaster is in the video, and that's what I normally use. RODE ProCaster: geni.us/procasterrode RODE NT-USB+: geni.us/rodentusbplus I use the RODECaster Pro II and other RODE products. They have the most streamlined and seamless complete setup, and it sounds awesome.
I primarily watched for the algorithm and to let you know that my Zhiyun F100 arrived yesterday and my first impression is very positive. Well worth the price. As for microphones... I used to use a Zoom H2n audio recorder when I still recorded my podcast which was more than adequate for a hobby. It has now been demoted to the mic I use for Discord. I know this video is not about shotgun mics, but I have never used one of those before and I am curious if it would pick up even less background noise than the lavaliere microphone I use outside. Any experience with that?
Thanks for the support! Glad you like the F100 so far. I can't get over how great it is with the softbox attached and ready to go at all times with a quick unfolding of the barn doors. Dynamic mics like this will pick up the least background noise out of all the different types (lavalier, shotgun, and even condenser mics mean to be used at the same distance as these). Essentially, the closer your mouth is to the mic, the less outside noise you'll pick up. I'm setting up a new studio space when we move in a couple weeks, and I'm switching to a dynamic mic like this because the signal to noise is much better, it's easier to get a consistent distance to the mic (vs a shotgun), and personally I think they look cool in frame.
@@NewLayer that makes sense. I have only used a condenser microphone before and it recorded a horrible echo in my untreated room and had too much noise for my taste so I switched to the Zoom recorder. Best of luck with your move! Hope it goes well and you have lots of help.
@@MiroAcronymity Condensers are really great sounding as long as your room is treated well. The less it is, the more reverb you get, and it drives me nuts!
What do you mean by "hardware limiter" and "yelling for it to take effect" when talking abt the Maono PD400X? Were you talking abt the USB or XLR mode? I apologize if this is a redundant question
A limiter is processing done when your audio reaches high loudness levels in order to keep it from clipping. Without a limiter, sounds that are too loud would clip and sound extremely distorted. A hardware limiter specifically means that it's built into the internal processing of the mic, and cannot be turned off. It's more of a safety feature that way, or made for people with less audio knowledge. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and really only becomes noticeable if you're talking VERY loudly or yelling into the mic. Hope that helps.
@@NewLayer Ohh I see, were you talking abt the USB or XLR connection in this specific context? Cause in USB mode, it does have the software to set a limiter & also compressor too, if that is what you were referring to
I did not get the VO-7U podcasting kit, so mine didn't come with a boom arm and pop filter, so I can't say 100%. But since the others all fit on the VO-7U and on each other, I would say I'm 99% sure :) Hope that helps.
Wow my favorite was the RODE Procaster and I was surprised! I thought for sure my ears would pick the SM7B! In order from my favorite to least liked: 1. RØDE Procaster 2. Shure SM7B 3. Boya BY-DM500 (would never use any of the ones below) 4. Maono PD400X 5. Deity VO-7U 6. RØDE Pod Mic
Thanks for the comment! That's why I did it blind, I think too many people (including me) get thrown off seeing the "good" mic name while listening to the audio. It's crazy because some of your rankings are same/close to mine, then some are way different, haha. Just goes to show that honestly a lot of it is personal preference, what you're listening on, and what might match your specific voice. I may share my favorites down the road, but for now... 🤐
@@NewLayer lol yeah would love to know your favorites! I will say, the SM7B is the one I would buy and the reason is because when you physically move the SM7B, the mic doesn't pick up that noise. That's because its frame allows users to move it with little sound interference. However, on the Procaster, it would definitely pick up that kind of noise/tapping.
@@theDanDeleon Fair enough! If there's enough interest in specific head to head reviews that cover more things like handling noise, plosives, proximity effect, off-axis rejection, etc. I'll gladly indulge :)
Why do you never use the mic s 4-6? Have you tested them with your own voice with correctly setup? 95% say they would use the SM7B ( because most use it but it doesnt fit most voices ). I think about how to find the correct or good mic for my voice. THAT would be a good video 🤔
@@DieTabbi You mean the BOYA, Deity, and Maono in my own videos? A few reasons, but mainly because I already had a set workflow with levels set and EQ and other presets already made for my current gear. Now, I'm using the RODECaster Pro II as an audio interface, and it has lots of presets and settings that work best with RODE mics. My wife is an audiobook narrator and will be switching to the Maono PD400X for her work after her current project, so I definitely put to use the best tools for the job. I'm not sure what your second question means when you say "with your own voice with correctly setup". The same audio in this video is my own voice with the mics correctly set up, lol.
Totally surprised. The Maono just killed them all. Close second was the Procaster. In some other reviews I loved the openness of the Podmic, but now it was the weakest contender.
The Maono was definitely one of my favorites too! Along with the RODE mics, but like you said, the Procaster and PodMic both sound very different! Goes to show that A) you have to find the right mic for your voice/needs and B) sometimes the big names aren't always the best.
Nice comparison although i have to say how crappy the Rode boom arm is. The boom arm from Blue is so much better. No creeking, no breaking, just steady.
I've had the polar opposite experience! I have 4 PSA1/+ boom arms at this point, haha. None of my RODE boom arms make any kind of sound when I adjust them either. I'm not saying you're lying, it's just crazy to me how different our experiences are. What mic are you using on your Blue arm? The Blue specifically worked fine within a small weight range, but did not have enough tension adjustment to work with more than 50% of my mics, and it was too short in general to work with my desk (the PSA1+ has ~5" of reach). The Elgato Wave is even shorter than the Blue arm, so it worked well, but only a very compact-style setup, and again, only with a small selection of mics. I've used every boom arm in existence and the PSA1/+has been the only one that works with every single mic straight out of the box without have to make any kind of adjustments, and is long enough for a bigger desk.
@@NewLayer Well, my PSA1 alwas made noises and eventually broke. I also didn't like the look of it. It always felt cheap while the Blue arm feels so much better. I have the Sennheiser MK4 attached to it and it's holding it easily. You can adjust the arm with a screw inside the mount.
@@janeeightfive7331 Glad it's working out for you! The screw in the Blue arm I had couldn't be tightened or loosened enough for a lot of my mics. Perhaps it's been upgraded since I bought mine. Maybe same with the RODE arm. Besides the things like the sleeves on the PSA1+, I wouldn't be surprised if some internals were enhanced.
I will say it's not my personal favorite, but it is a great mic for ~$99 and the default sound is very editable, so it can sound very good with some basic processing.
Are you listening on decent headphones or speakers? Stuff like phones or laptop speakers aren't good enough to reproduce some of the more important frequencies that really set different mics apart. The important thing to note about that, is if you are creating content for mobile, you know that you don't really need a specific, expensive mic, because the listener won't be able to tell anyways!
Despite what other comment said this is not the ideal way to do a mic showdown. I need to be able A-B the clips myself with them labeled using just my mouse click and the video timeline. Can't fully listen to nuances with just a 3 second clip and can't compare them back and forth instantly because they are unlabeled and because the comparison part of the video is unchaptered between mics. I recommend having text timestamps in the video description and longer recdording samples please.
Blind comparison is quite disappointing. Firstly because audio level is not adjusted across all micros (especially in first set of examples). Secondly because audio is modified and not raw.
What you’re saying is the exact opposite of reality 😂 The audio is raw, apart from volume normalization. If they sound different volume, it’s because of the natural audio characteristics of each mic or RU-vid processing.
